The newly wedded couple have now been blessed with education, the intelligence and a long life. What they need is the prowess or the skill which is the next treasure in the 16 called “Aatral“.
What is the use if we cannot put our knowledge and intelligence into action and hence the significance of “Aatral”. This again is a very broad word encompassing many spheres of life. We will look at a few in this post.
For the wife, the new environment would present many tasks from the morning that would stretch late in the evening. If her parents had prepared her for this new role, then it would be easy for her. It was for this reason that daughters were trained in all household activities by their mothers and were sometimes asked to handle them in her absence. This OJT (on the job training) stood the daughters in good stead when they went into a new family.
It is often said that the easy way to get a man to one’s side is via the stomach and hence culinary skills or “samayal aatral” was an important ingredient in a woman’s world. Since the husband would be used to his mother’s cooking for a long time, it isn’t easy to impress him unless the wife made an extra effort. It would also be quite frequent that comparisons be made with the mother’s cooking and she needs to take it in her stride and bide her time.
In the earlier post about “arivu”, we talked about the native intelligence required to get the new family members aligned to her presence. It would require many a trial and error to find the right recipe and that requires a certain “aatral” too.
Because the couple would soon be parents, they need to be endowed with parenting skills so that they bring up responsible children and help them reach their potential. The word “aatral” relates to this aspect also.
Managing finances of the household also requires skills of a different kind. Ability to minimize wasteful expenditure and create an atmosphere for savings is a skill that is vital for a prosperous family.
We could go on and on but let us pause for a while at this juncture!
Strands of thought 
Treasure 5/16 « Strands of thought said,
April 25, 2011 at 4:37 am
[…] have so far seen Education, Intelligence, Longevity and physical prowess as the treasures the newly weds were blessed […]